Emily Tennyson, Lady Tennyson

Emily Tennyson, c. 1857, in the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale. Emily Sarah Tennyson, Baroness Tennyson ( Sellwood; 9 July 1813 – 10 August 1896), known as Emily, Lady Tennyson, was the wife of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and an author and composer in her own right. Emily was the oldest of three daughters, raised by a single father, after her mother Sarah died when she was three years old. Her father, a successful lawyer, was devoted to her and her sisters and ensured that they had a good education. She met Alfred when she was a girl, but they did not develop a romantic relationship until his brother Charles married her sister Louisa. It was thirteen years before they would marry, due to her father's concerns about the degree to which Tennyson could provide for her on a poet's income. When his career became more successful, Emily and Alfred married.

Emily played a number of significant roles in Alfred's life. Aside from being a wife and mother of two sons, she ran large households and conducted business tasks for her husband. She performed the role of a business manager, secretary, promoter, entertainer, and protector. Her health suffered after the birth of her second child, and stress and overwork caused her health to weaken to the point that she became an invalid. She enjoyed music and wrote settings for some of Tennyson's poetry, and wrote a couple of hymns. After her husband died in 1892, she worked with her son to write a biography of his life.

Early life Emily Sarah Sellwood was born on 9 July 1813, most likely at Market Place, Horncastle, Lincolnshire, the eldest of three daughters born to Sarah (née Franklin, 1788–1816) and Henry Sellwood (1782–1867).

Her father was a prosperous solicitor, secretary, and manager who acted for the Tennyson family many times over the years; her mother was a younger sister of Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin. Her mother died when Emily was three years of age, after which her devoted father provided a good education for the girls. Alfred fell in love with Emily at the marriage of his brother, Charles, to her sister, Louisa, in May 1836. He later wrote a sonnet about how he felt at the wedding of their siblings, where Emily was the bridesmaid:Love lighted down between them full of glee, And over his left shoulder laughed at thee, ‘O happy bridesmaid, make a happy bride.’ And all at once a pleasant truth I learn’d, For while the tender service made thee weep, I loved thee for the tear thou could’st not hide, And prest thy hand, and knew the press return’d, And thought, ‘My life is sick of single sleep: O happy bridesmaid, make a happy bride!’ Philip Larkin wrote of Emily Tennyson, another poet's wife: Mrs Alfred Tennyson/Answered/begging letters/admiring letters/ insulting letters/enquiring letters/ business letters/and publishers' letters./She also/looked after his clothes/saw to his food and drink/ entertained visitors/protected him from gossip and criticism/And finally/(apart from running the household)/ Brought up and educated his children./While all this was going on/Mister Alfred Tennyson sat like a baby/Doing his poetic business. and O yet we trust that somehow good. Emily and her son Hallam wrote a memoir of Tennyson. Emily Tennyson died on 10 August 1896 at Aldworth. She is buried in All Saints' Church, Freshwater, Isle of Wight.